BrooklynQ sent in this photo of the newest art installment at the Gravesend Neck Road train station. Seeing this brings on one of those heartwarming moments where you’re oh-so-happy that they’re raising fares again so they can keep putting in new benches, and providing fresh canvases for Sheepshead Bay’s prolific artists.
All righty, people… caption contest? Yes, I think so. What’ve you got for this photo?
It may be a little cliche to point it out, but there’s history all around us. Some of it’s visible, and some of it’s lurking behind the many obstacles we put up in our rush to modernity.
This, of course, is nothing new. The advertisement above, photographed by Lisanne Anderson and recently featured on Fading Ad Blog, was itself covered by another ad in the 1930s. Both the one above and the 1930s version were for I. Golden, a pawnbroker dating back to 1917, says Anderson. In the 1960s, no one had any idea the one you see above existed. In the 1970s, this one exposed itself as the obstructing ad faded. Now, miraculously, only the original ad exists.
The ad says, “LOANS – On diamonds, jewelry, clothing, etc. – I. Golden.” You can see it for yourself on East 15th Street and the corner of Gravesend Neck Road.
Also, be sure to check out the very cool Fading Ad Blog for more reminders of our historical obsession with consumerism.
That’s my favorite kind of soup. I like to follow it with Ka Ka buns.
Seen outside of Beer Saloon on Gravesend Neck Road and Sheepshead Bay Road. Despite the bad spelling, Beer Saloon has yummy lunch specials that include $2.95 pelmeni and a wide variety of imported beers. More on that later.
Photo by Arthur Borko
C.S.K. Fruit & Vegetables on Gravesend Neck Road and East 14th Street stuck this sign out the other day. Sure, Gravesend Neck Road needs a pizzeria. But, really – a fruit and veggie market? What were they thinking?
Arthur Borko challenged me to try it out and write a review. So I went over around 5 p.m. one day. There were two sweaty slices sitting in a (refrigerated?) case, along with some cheeses and other crap. The owners wanted $2.00 a slice, and said they’d reheat them in a microwave.
Thanks, but no thanks. Here’s a photo of those slices. Your thoughts? Have you been brave enough to try this out?
Photo by Ray Johnson
Over the weekend, we asked all our Facebook buddies to upload their old photos of Sheepshead Bay and tag them “Sheepshead Bites”. We were happy to see some readers listened, and a dozen or so photos poured in. This one came from Lisanne, a 1961 photo of East 13th Street looking towards Homecrest Avenue and Neck Road. I can’t even begin to imagine fields in Sheepshead Bay.
It’s not too late to add yours. Go friend us on Facebook, and then start uploading new and old photos of the area and tag them “Sheepshead Bites”. They’ll still be totally under your control – it just allows our friends to see them.
Gravesend Neck Road, between East 14 and East 15 Streets gains parking meters.
A worker at the New Great Wall Chinese take-out, across the street from where the picture above was taken (1419 Gravesend Neck Road), told us that he noticed the new meters on the south side of the street two or three months ago and that the meters were installed on a portion of the north side of the road “a couple of years ago.”
Now that there are meters prohibiting parking for more than two hours at a time, commuter parkers have taken note. One man we spoke with – a Florida snowbird retiree who still has a home in Marine Park and visits Brooklyn a few times a year – told us,
For me, it’s not much of a problem, because I just come here once in a while when I’m visiting my house and family and need to get on the subway, which is a whole other mess — but, I remember when this place hardly had any cars.
Gravesend Neck Road was known as a relatively quiet street, traffic-wise. The numerous businesses lining the road attract mainly nearby residents, who prefer getting to know their local merchants as opposed to shopping on busy Avenue U.
Commuters looking to avoid bus fare and tired of the mile long walk to the Gravesend Neck Road station from the boondocks of Gerritsen Beach, let’s say, would drive to Neck Road and park all day. The road was known as one that was safe and quiet, one without meters, where the commuter could come back from their long day at work in Manhattan and not have to worry about a parking ticket.
Referring to the lesser used local train station, the blogger known as Chicken Underwear, who grew up in Sheepshead Bay, but now resides in Park Slope, said, “why does everybody from Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Coney Island have to stop there when the trains are running local?” That the city sees Gravesend Neck Road as the next parking meter cash cow suggest an answer to his question. They recognize that many people are frequenting the area.
As for the residents who are now missing parking spots, they’ll just have to cut an illegal curb on the sidewalk in front of their home.
As we informed you last week, the Avenue U and Neck Road train stations have reopened their Coney Island-bound platforms after more than one year.
Featuring wider platforms and wood-ish paneling, the station had its first commuters yesterday and were caught by photographer Paul Anderson.
Below you’ll see photos of the new station – a sign of things to come all along the B/Q line – which is not yet totally complete. You’ll see work is still being done on the stairwell and on the platform itself. The station’s signs appear to also be in commute, as workers temporarily placed dirty, tagged up signs from the other side of the tracks until new ones are installed.
So… we await your photos of gummed up platforms and graffiti’d walls…
Following yesterday’s report about graffiti vandals tagging the subway platforms at Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue U, one reader sent us a much better shot of the crap at Neck Road. Thank you, reader, you can collect your free hug when we finally have our first Sheepshead Bites meetup.
Courtesy of BrooklynQ
Reports began pouring in about a week ago that the Avenue U and Gravesend Neck Road train stations were already covered in graffiti. It wasn’t very long ago that the platforms finally began to take shape after a year of work, and as soon as they had walls they got some “art.”
Seriously, Sheepshead Bay needs better street artists. These guys suck.
On a related note about things that suck – our budget. We couldn’t afford the $2.25 to go up on the platform and snap a shot, so all we’ve got is this cruddy cell phone photo from a reader. So please, send us more photos of the construction and the vandalism, and we’ll post them. Free hug for every published photo!
Send photos to nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com or upload them to your Facebook account and tag them with “Sheepshead Bites”
Construction inside the planned Starbucks location has been stalled for months
Bad news for those salivating in anticipation of the new drive-through Starbucks on Nostrand Avenue: their planned opening date has been pushed back by several months.
We reported back in July that the 3454 Nostrand Avenue (corner of Gravesend Neck Road) location would open this month. Unfortunately, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have slammed the brakes on the project over concerns of the location of the drive-through curb cut, according to Howard Weiss, an attorney for the property owner.
Weiss said that after the Board of Standards and Appeals granted a variance giving permission to construct a drive-through in May, construction kicked off and all seemed good. But he said the MTA renovated the B36 and B44 bus shelter there, moving it closer to the corner several feet.
